SPIKE//

Tristan and I were nerding out- as we often do- and the topic turned - as it often does- to language.  Specifically, we were talking about the semantics of verbs.  I asked him what he knew about verbs that seem to come in transitive/intransitive pairs and are phonologically similar, like sit/set and lay/lie.

My theory was that the these pairs originally had one root and that the vowel was ablauted depending on whether the form was transitive (requires an object) or intransitive (doesn’t require an object).  So (intransitive) “I sit myself down” but (transitive) “I set down a glass”.  

Tristan was skeptical.  He did some digging and turned up that they had separate roots.  At each level (Old English, Old High German, Teutonic) the verbs were represented separately but analogously- meaning that the ablaut goes way back.  But there, buried in the Teutonic, it seems like “set” is defined as “the causal of to sit”.  AHA.

Sit: [Common Teut.: OE. sittan (sæt, ston, eseten), = OFris. sitta (WFris. sitte), MDu. sitten, zitten (Du. zitten), OS. sittian, sittean (MLG. and LG.sitten), OHG. sizzan, sizzen (G. sitzen), ON. and Icel. sitja (Norw. sitja, sitta, sita; MSw. sitia, sittia, Sw. sitta; Da. sidde):Teut. type *sitjan, for which Goth. had sitan. The stem *set-, pre-Teut. *sed-, is widely represented in the cognate languages, as in Lith. sedeti, Lat. sedre, Gr.  (cf.  seat), etc. 

Set: [Com. Teut.: OE. sttan = OFris. setta (mod.Fris. sette), OS. settian (MDu., MLG. setten, Du. zetten), OHG. sezzan beside sazzan (MHG. sezzen, G. setzen), ON. setja (Sw. satta, Da. sætte), Goth. satjan; causal of *setjan (sitjan) to SIT.